Artificial Intelligence, Ethics and Privacy. Thursday, 19th January 2017, the French ‘Office parlementaire d’évaluation des choix scientifiques et technologiques (OPECST)’ hold a public hearing on Artificial Intelligence in the Senate. I present a short summary.

A major case in Privacy v Security debate. FBI claims, based on an Judiciary Act of 1789 – ironically the year of the French Revolution- to have the right to force Apple to write a software brute forcing the Apple encryption on iPhones. The FBI required the assistance of a judge which has issued the order to give ‘reasonable assistance‘. They have carefully chosen a case involving the San Bernardino terrorist attack to request this software from Apple.

What was expected happened: An Irish privacy group, Digital Rights Irland, launched legal challenge against the Eu-US Privacy Shield agreement. The EU General Court will have to review the adequacy of the privacy protections of the agreement. Why is it important, especially from Ireland? Because many mega online US companies are based in Ireland.

As a result of privatization, Concentrix, a private company, is acting on behalf of the HMRC to reduce the amount of tax credit paid. Under the vague suspicion of someone living with the single parent, every sometime, Concentrix send out letter, requesting a massive amount of documents : 12 months of ALL bank statements, 12 months of utility bills: gas, electricity, phone and water, 12 months of council tax, 12 month of mortgage statement or rental agreement, divorce decree. This seems to be an ongoing harassment of single parents. We can imagine the cost of print, photocopy and postage of all these documents for vulnerable single parents. Many have expressed their pain on various online forums.

A court ruled in favor of a dentist claiming copyright protection on her patients’ reviews. In this case, surprisingly enough the dentist, prior to any treatment, had asked clients to sign a confidentiality agreement to benefit from a copyright over any comments made about her or her practice. The case is Lee v. Makhenevich, 1:11-cv-08665 (SDNY).

Played with Periscope and not terribly convinced it’s for everyone. Periscope is a ‘perishable’ live recording to share on its own platform or on other social media. Twitter spent $86 million to acquire Periscope. It has been rapidly expanding this year. If you are not familiar with the live-streaming app, here is a what Rhiannon William says to catch up: “Periscope is Twitter’s new live-streaming video app, not to be confused with the recently launched Meerkat, also a live-streaming app. It allows you to watch and broadcast live video from all across the globe, meaning you could switch from watching a peaceful wander across the beaches of Cornwall to a protest in Egypt.

Amy Murray, director of early childhood education at the Calgary French & International School in Canada, blogger at Miss Night’s Marbles. An exceptionally compassionate human being. If there was more empathy at school, if school could teach our kids to share, listen and understand each other, if they could be thought that together we go much further than against each other, we would have a much better society. The bullying of playground is the cancer of our society. Kids carry on their school experiences all along their lives. A good start and a harmonious childhood is the only way of building a better society.

This is a translation of a recent post of mine on LinkedinPulse and on this blog. I had not much written in French lately.

Since the terrorist attacks, since I see in the press and elsewhere reports of the ‘jungle of Calais‘, I wonder, how did we get there? I feel we need to try to find answers because we cannot heal the disease without finding its cause.

Refugees are herded into squalid camps, a spell that we would not want for our cattle.

These desperate people come from the cradle of civilisation. From nations that fell into decline under the weight of political regimes favouring their personal interests, letting corruption and political repression reign the terror. Western powers, captivated by the black gold found their field shenanigans. The Shah of Iran, suffering from delusions of grandeur ended up being dismissed by those who held him as their puppet. Khomeini and the Islamic power rule since 1979, for over forty years of a regime that has brought this country to the Middle Ages. Iran of today is no longer the Persia, father the Cyrus Cylinder, of the original Declaration of Human Rights, kept at the British Museum. The wheel of destiny has turned.

Iraq, long supported by the West in its military attacks against Iran, became the enemy. And one day a President awakened from his sleep to the sound of a divine command ordering him to attack this country, once an ally. This man should be tried today for crimes against humanity.

I am doing a shortcut, just mentioning the Guantanamo prison, torture in the legal nomansland of the first world power.

Successive wars, torture and humiliation, strengthened Islamist terrorist networks. On 9/11, we jumped to the next level of violence with the deadly attack of the Twin Towers in downtown New York. The response, strengthening of Western coalitions against the forces of evil in the guise of Islam. The 21st Century Religious war.

Just like a Battle Game – our governments must have been left to long to play virtual war. The arms industry rubs its hands. The major oil companies made their profits, the military could finally put their theoretical training in practice.

Honest citizens are made to believe that military attacks – based on lies now proven – had to overcome the evil by the force of good.

But the bombs, missiles, as sophisticated as they are, are not capable of the surgical destruction promised. Thousands of civilians are killed. Families disseminated, cultural heritage at large extents destroyed forever. Even humanitarian hospitals fell under attacks. MSF medical centers were destroyed although they had shared their position. But how to avoid them? This war game is not proceeding as on the screen or on the board. It’s real blood flowing and the blood of innocent civilians. Hate is exacerbated, attacks of all kinds multiplied. A crescendo of violence whirlwind shall take all reason and humanity.

We are in a ‘State of War ‘, as likes to proclaim the French Prime Minister, Manuel Valls. Although France is not overrun by enemy tanks. Radical Islam has hit the heart of Paris. Security measures are tightened. The state of emergency is declared, then extended for the first time under the Fifth Republic. Individual freedom gets limited. Searches and spot checks will follow. Racial profiling and Islamophobia seriously increased. Yet nothing can stop the attacks; after Paris, Mali and Brussels. On the other side of the Channel, the attack on the San Bernardino killed 41 innocent people.

The Government debated to strip French nationality to terrorists, until they realise that this would create stateless individuals no-one would know what to do with. In the rush it is decided to limit the sanction to bi-nationals, at the risk of creating two tears of French citizens. The decision has an immediate effect : the resignation of the Justice Minister, Christiane Taubira, who refused to play this demagogic game, in the country of Human Rights. UPDATE : Hollande drops plans to strip nationality.

But lets think, for one second, can we really believe that the menace of withdrawing French nationality would have any deterrent effect to a religious fanatic, kamikaze, ready to explode himself ? Irresponsible demagogy!

If instead, we looked at the reason behind, the motive of a French national – because they are indeed first or second generation French Citizens – to become entrapped by the enemy who kills in the name of the Islam, even though many are not even practicing muslims. In fact, all those arrested or unmasked terrorists have a common denominator: the passage by the prison. In real life, it’s not like in the Monopoly game, prisoners don’t often get a second chance.

Because I have been fortunate to have studied Criminal Law taught by the Professor Léauté, I know from many years, what he kept warning, the danger of overpopulated prisons. It has only worsened from year to year. This problem is not confined to France – regularly condemned by the European Court of Human Rights for his conditions of detention of prisoners – the problem is unfortunately common to most Western countries. England has privatised its prisons. This is a tragedy. The BBC program, Panorama, recently revealed the violence suffered by very young prisoners, humiliated and beaten by prison guards. For far too long, engorged prisons have ceased to fill their redemption feature. It has become the place of further training in crime and regimentation of religious extremists. We cannot continue to deny the problem, pushing the dust under the carpet. The prison situation is explosive. The work of the guards has become untenable. This does not prevent our presidential candidate, Nathalie Koziko-Morizet to proclaim life sentence for terrorists, why not return to the death penalty. Lets be serious. Did she bother to ask prison guards on the difficulties of managing inmates sentenced to life?

Do not get me wrong, I don’t defend these terrorists but it is worth remembering that France was liberated by the action of a notorious terrorist, the General De Gaulle, and his network. The question is not so simple. I recommend everyone to read or reread ‘The Just Assassins‘ by Albert Camus.

The case of the brothers Coulibali is very eloquent on the motivation of some of these terrorists. These are young people from disadvantaged suburbs, delinquency, prison, cut off from everything, without being heard. Have you ever strolled in Paris with a swarthy? A very revealing experience of racial profiling. When you are systematically controlled, when you cannot find housing, nor work, except in your ghetto, you become an easy prey. Brainwashed and when there is no more hope, terrorist attack, at the cost of owns life, await them. The Coulibali brothers had produced a video with a hidden camera on the conditions of detention in prison but had not been heard.

So what should we do? First, lets stop talking ‘State of War’ and ‘State of Emergency’. No, France is not at war, as Belgium has not declared war either. State of war would mean that terrorists may seek protection of prisoners of war and applicable rules of international law in time of war. Lets start by finding ways of integrating refugees. Infiltrate Islamist circles. This is how Salah Abdeslam was arrested and not as a result of police surveillance. We now know that these terrorists were spotted by the French services, Belgian, Turkish or American. That did not stop them to act. We must accept that accumulating a mass of information is counter productive. The Passenger Name Records data base will not bring much. Any database inherently increases the risk of unauthorised access. Instead, France needs to increase its witness protection.

In the longer term, improving the education system because our youth are our only hope and because it is through the school that immigrants get integrated. We need to review the prison system. It is essential to find alternatives to imprisonment such as Community Work. These young people can no longer understand why politicians and big industry leaders never go to prison despite their wrongdoing. How many ministers were caught red-handed and still at large?

Our judicial system is on the brink of bankruptcy. A society that no longer believes in its Justice is a very sick society.

The terrorists have made us a gigantic walk-to-nose by attacking Brussels’ international airport – one of the most watched places – and the metro station close to the European Institutions, only a few meters from Molembeek. The picture of the three terrorists, walking side by side, wearing one black glove, that took a taxi to arrive at the airport, should be sufficient proof that no security system can confront determining suicide bombers ready to blow. These police measures and increased surveillance will exacerbate violence. The real terror is the fear that is created. We are losing the fundamental values ​​of freedom on which our society is based. We need not let the terrorists take away our identity.

Looking at the biography of the Ministers, some are immigrants. I wonder, how they have managed to succeed what these young terrorists have missed ? Education.

It started with a discussion on Facebook on the social origins of Madame Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, born in 1977 in Beni Chiker in Morocco, in a very modest family. Second of seven children. The family joined the father in France for family reunification. A father working in the building industry, a girl who did all duty at state schools. She did brilliant law studies and finished Science Po to be the first woman Minister of Education, at the age of 36 years. His first Tweet after her appointment was a thank you for this school that allowed her to access a cabinet position. She is not the only bi-national in this Manuel Valls government, starting by himself, a Hispano-French; Ms. Myriam El Khomeri, Minister of Employment, was born of Moroccan father and a French mother; Fleur Pellerin, former minister of culture, as the ecologist Minister Jean-Vincent Place, were both born in South Korea, adopted by French families. The Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, also Spanish, has acquired French nationality in 1973. This is not even specific to socialists. In the right, Nicolas Sarkozy, sun of Hungarian and Madame Rachida Dati, mostly known for her Louboutin high heel shoes, is the daughter of M’Barek Dati, arrived Moroccan bricklayer in France in 1963 and an Algerian mother. His case is exemplary, she did not achieve her academic credentials without pitfall like the others, but starting with small jobs, not without difficulty, she ended at the ENM (Ecole Normale de la Magistrature) and was appointed Minister of Justice by Nicolas Sarkozy.

All this must be put to the credit of France. A society that, despite her caste, allowed the social ascent of children of immigrants. Instead of rejecting newcomers, look at how to integrate them positively. Let’s look at all these immigrants who are the pride of our country. Remember that lies under the Pantheon flame, Marie Curie, a Polish immigrant, to whom we would not give this tribute had she not been one day admitted to France. We drink the wine that originally comes from Persia, We listen to the music of Chopin, we practice algebra so let us love one another because we are born of the diversity that is enrichment.

What has changed in the music world?
Like everything, Internet plays the amplifier: bigger scale in spread and speed, free broadcast, higher reach, perfect quality duplication.
So what about digital music ? You don’t buy anymore, you get a lease. The music is not yours. You cannot sell it, not even transfer its property for free. After your death ? All will disappear. Actually, many even loose all their purchased music before, with the death of their device.
That’s all good for the music industry.
What else? No packaging, no stock, no store, no vendor. Minimal distribution cost. Higher benefit.
So why do artists don’t make more money?
Why is that the music industry is lobbying for more anti counterfeiting measure, Deep Packet Inspection and censorship?
Let’s look at what happened with the cinema. Al these warnings that home recording and TV will kill it all? Look at the results: French cinema this year had its best results ever! Le Monde May 2015 :<a href=”http://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2015/05/06/le-cinema-francais-va-bien-merci_4628561_3234.html”&gt; “Le Cinema Francais via bien, Merci”</a>
Not enough that technology evolves, you want it or not, the market will be ever strong as long as the quality is there.
<a href=”http://www.slideshare.net/mobile/briansolis/the-future-of-digital-music-and-artistry-brian-solis-at-midem-2015”>Brian Solis slides on the future of digital music and artistry </a>

]]>https://clarinettesblog.wordpress.com/2015/06/09/the-future-of-the-digital-music/feed/0ClarinetteCC Tara TaubmanCreative Commons LicenseLaw Enforcement and Internet Jurisdictionhttps://clarinettesblog.wordpress.com/2015/02/22/law-enforcement-and-internet-jurisdiction/
https://clarinettesblog.wordpress.com/2015/02/22/law-enforcement-and-internet-jurisdiction/#respondSun, 22 Feb 2015 09:28:40 +0000http://clarinettesblog.wordpress.com/?p=1612]]>One very active researcher I have met at Queen Mary University of London during my Masters on Internet and Telecommunications Law was Julia Hornle. Although not very helpful to resolve my personal issue when my essay was lost by the lecturer during my first online tester module, she has done extensive work on EU and cross border internet regulation and online gambling. [If you wondered, I was lucky to have the email of that lecturer confirming he had received the essay. SO after a long battle, I came out with a higher mark.]
So it was with great pleasure that I heard her presentation on the more specific issue of Law enforcement and internet jurisdiction.

Law enforcement agencies encounter many challenges when prosecuting authors of crime to investigate and gather information. One challenge is to access data stored in another jurisdiction, another is to access data of entity when the head quarter is based in another jurisdiction. (How Cyber Jurisdiction Affects Cybercrime Prosecution) Public International law is based on the connection factor of territoriality. The

The situation is different for Criminal law investigation of a crime against state intelligence. The recent case of NSA and UK GCHQ data access have been criticised.
How much data is safe online with the accession in cloud?Art 29WP opinion erects a distinction between sovereignty/ prosecution and law enforcement/collection of evidence
Use of encryption and wire tap barrier to access communication are privacy barriers. Recently the UK government has tried to bare the use of encryption.
To read more on the subject and access the video recording of the panel click here.

]]>https://clarinettesblog.wordpress.com/2015/02/22/law-enforcement-and-internet-jurisdiction/feed/0ClarinetteimageimageTo be or not to be (anonymous)? Anonymity in the age of big and open datahttps://clarinettesblog.wordpress.com/2015/02/17/to-be-or-not-to-be-anonymous-anonymyity-in-the-age-of-big-and-open-data/
https://clarinettesblog.wordpress.com/2015/02/17/to-be-or-not-to-be-anonymous-anonymyity-in-the-age-of-big-and-open-data/#respondTue, 17 Feb 2015 20:34:25 +0000http://clarinettesblog.wordpress.com/?p=1618]]>One of the very crucial issues for online privacy is how much anonymity is effective. An insightful panel discussions at the CPDP 2015 Privacy conference in Brussels was ‘To be or not to be (anonymous)? Anonymyity in the age of big and open data‘. How safe anonymised data are is at the centre of the big data debate. So far, most research, if not all, have shown how easily date could be de-anonymised. Paul Ohm and the Carnegie Melon University have demonstrated the failure of anonymization for a long time. Here is how it was announced on the program :

Anonymisation is seen as an essential prerequisite for the development of big data and open data because it is the only way to allow the disclosure of large datasets while preserving individuals’ privacy. However, what do we mean exactly by anonymisation, and what could be considered as a truly anonymous dataset? Is it possible to ensure that “anonymised” data cannot be de-anonymised one day? If not, can we draw a line between anonymous and personal data? How should data utility be taken into account? These questions are under considerable debate and the answers are of strategic importance. Addressing these issues interdisciplinarily is essential. This panel will gather computer scientists, statisticians and lawyers to contrast and discuss their views on anonymisation. The panel will also provide the opportunity to present and discuss Opinion 05/2014 of the Article 29 Working Party on anonymisation techniques.

What is anonymous data?

How can data be anonymised in practice?

What are the limitations of anonymisation?

How can regulation go beyond the duality personal data/anonymous data?

]]>https://clarinettesblog.wordpress.com/2015/02/17/to-be-or-not-to-be-anonymous-anonymyity-in-the-age-of-big-and-open-data/feed/0ClarinetteimageCatching up with the annual CPDP conference in Brusselshttps://clarinettesblog.wordpress.com/2015/01/23/catching-up-with-the-annual-cdpd-conference-in-brussels/
https://clarinettesblog.wordpress.com/2015/01/23/catching-up-with-the-annual-cdpd-conference-in-brussels/#commentsFri, 23 Jan 2015 18:12:23 +0000http://clarinettesblog.wordpress.com/?p=1592]]> The Computers, Privacy & Data Protection conference is one of the major annual privacy events. Originally founded in 2007 by research groups from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, the Université de Namur and Tilburg University, it is not an exaggeration to say that the ‘CPDP offers the cutting edge in legal, regulatory, academic and technological development in privacy and data protection. In 2014 ‘854 guests including 343 speakers from 43 different countries dispersed over more than 60 panels which took place during three full days. It attracted another 500 people in several public evening events… this year’s main topical themes were: Data Protection Reform: European and Global Developments, Mobility (mobile technologies, wearable technologies, border surveillance), EU-US developments concerning the regulation of government surveillance, Health, privacy and data protection, Love and lust in the digital age, Internet governance and privacy. I recently published a short article on LinkedIn, ‘Bigger than Big Data, Processed Information is Gold’ on the usefulness of the storage and classification of information. The multiple topics developed during this conference was the subject of my latest curation. Using the Pearltrees application, I have started gathering all publications around this event. They are published papers, programs, pictures or tweets. Progressively I will be able to add more papers and interventions published during this conference. All this can be shareable and accessible at anytime, from anywhere on any digital device, be it a smartphone, a tablette or a computer. The content is easily modifiable, completed or shared. Have a look here, on Pearltrees ‘CPDP 2015‘ From an iPad or a smartphone, you might need to download the free App. Simply click on each square to access the relevant information on a webpage, a Pdf or text document or a picture.

Disclaimer: I have no tight or affiliation with The Pearltrees. I am simply a long time user.

]]>https://clarinettesblog.wordpress.com/2015/01/23/catching-up-with-the-annual-cdpd-conference-in-brussels/feed/1ClarinetteCPDP2015RIP Charlie Hebdohttps://clarinettesblog.wordpress.com/2015/01/07/rip-charlie-hebdo/
https://clarinettesblog.wordpress.com/2015/01/07/rip-charlie-hebdo/#respondWed, 07 Jan 2015 17:23:05 +0000http://clarinettesblog.wordpress.com/?p=1590]]>Today, January 6th 2015, 12 innocent people were killed by two or three extremists during a massacre attack at the French satirique newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
Another witness of the actual climate of trouble, the three biggest recent publications in France have been, after Valerie Trierweller’s ‘Merci Pour Ce Moment’, Zemmour’s anti Islamist book and more recently, Oualbeck’s anti Islamist propaganda novel.
Drole d’epoque !
Raise of religious hater,
Bigger and bigger gap between rich and poor,
A society where some die of over eating and obesity while the other half dies of hunger,
Some sick of working too much while other are sick with unemployment,
Is this the new economic order ?
Here are the pictures published by Charlie Hebdo to deserve the death of 12 innocents, including some of the greatest cartoonists.
To support freedom of speech and if living in a free society is your ideal, you might want to share these pictures.

I have studied Copyright law in France at undergraduate level, in the UK during my postgrad LLM at QMUL and at the moment I am reading an online course on Copyright with Harvard University. I have spent the last few years looking at the intersection of privacy and copyright law. I have advocated against the recent anti piracy regulations From HADOPI- The digital Economy Bill, SOPA and et all. I have been repeating this is all too confusing. We need to adapt the law before creating new sanctions, no one today can pretend to really grasp the logic of copyright law. The decision by the 9th Circuit came out just when we were studying the question of Authorship. It is absolutely amazing to read this case where the actress Cindy Garcia is said to own a copyright on a movie where she played a small contribution which has been used without her consent in a second movie, the ‘Innocence of Muslims’. The justification being that she has been receiving death threats. What could have been resolved under contract law, had she had signed a contract, or Moral Rights, had it been in Civil Law litigation.
So the 9th Circuit has given an injunction to Google YouTube to take down this video. The Judge Kozinski has even asked Google/YouTube an injunction not to tell the world that the video had been ordered censored by a court for at least a week!
Since, Google has quickly filed an “emergency motion for a stay”.
The number of dissent opinions on this case is remarkable. I invite you to look at some of them collected on my Pearltrees. This is a crucial question as it can led to a deluge of litigation if each and any actor, performing in a movie claimed co-authorship on the work. As much as I know co-authorship is not proportional under US law. So any actor would have right on every each whole work?!!!!! It’s a mess and I fear for every law student expected to have understood. here the Hollywood Reporter reports few dissent scholars.

An actor’s performance, when fixed, is copyrightable if it evinces “some minimal degree of creativity . . . ‘no matter how crude, humble or obvious’ it might be.” …. That is true whether the actor speaks, is dubbed over or, like Buster Keaton, performs without any words at all. Cf. 17 U.S.C. § 102(a)(4) (noting “pantomimes and choreographic works” are eligible for copyright protection). It’s clear that Garcia’s performance meets these minimum requirements.

Aalmuhammed isn’t to the contrary because it does not, as the dissent would have it, “articulate[] general principles of authorship.” Dissent 25. Aalmuhammed only discusses what is required for a contributor to a work to assert joint ownership over the entire work: “We hold that authorship is required under the statutory definition of a joint work, and that authorship is not the same thing as making a valuable and copyrightable contribution.” … Aalmuhammed plainly contemplates that an individual can make a “copyrightable contribution” and yet not become a joint author of the whole work. Id. For example, the author of a single poem does not necessarily become a co-author of the anthology in which the poem is published. It makes sense to impose heightened requirements on those who would leverage their individual contribution into ownership of a greater whole, but those requirements don’t apply to the copyrightability of all creative works, for which only a “minimal creative spark [is] required by the Copyright Act and the Constitution.”

[….]

This doesn’t mean that Garcia owns a copyright interest in the entire scene: She can claim copyright in her own contribution but not in “preexisting material” such as the words or actions spelled out in the underlying script. 17 U.S.C. § 103(b);…. Garcia may assert a copyright interest only in the portion of “Innocence of Muslims” that represents her individual creativity, but even if her contribution is relatively minor, it isn’t de minimis…. We need not and do not decide whether every actor has a copyright in his performance within a movie. It suffices for now to hold that, while the matter is fairly debatable, Garcia is likely to prevail.